SA Army attacking 
underdevelopment

Column on using the SA Army to undertake infrastructural development progammes, citing examples of Brazilian Army construction engineer units and mentioning US Navy Seabees

Deploying helicopters to disaster areas is not 
a simple affair

The international news has been dominated recently by the dreadful earthquake in Haiti, causing terrible loss of life and great devastation in the capital of Port-au-Prince and adjacent towns.

This catastrophe has yet again driven home the...

SA’s inequality rises as Brazil’s falls

Studies now show that South Africa has become, as measured by the Gini Coefficient, more unequal than Brazil – the country once rated as the most unequal in the world. The Gini Coefficient measures the inequality of income distribution within a...

Rocket science is easy; rocket engineering is hard

By the time you read this, we will know whether or not South Africa’s R26-million Sumbandila microsatellite (SumbandilaSat) is safely in space, or not. At deadline, the rocket (with its payload of one major and six micro satellites) was about...

Denel surmounting 
its difficulties

So, now we know that there is light at the end of the tunnel for South Africa’s State-owned defence group, Denel. While the group as a whole continues to make losses, it expects to return to profitability in the 2012-2013 financial year, which...

Industrial policy: kick the losers

“Industrial policy” has been an issue of debate in South Africa for a while now. Should South Africa have one? Should the government select certain promising industries and companies and boost them through various kinds of support?

This...

South Africa would 
not be equipped for 
an ocean search

Column on sophisticated aircraft employed on search operation for lost Air Frnce Airbus and how the SA Air Force lacks such capability

Back to the future

Column on the revival of the handicraft approach to manufacture in the aerospace industry due to the increasing use of composite materials.